A check-out system is already known, having a counter with a counter top and with a shopping cart with basket (DE-PS 24 35 780) in which the substantially horizontal bottom of the basket is situated at a short distance above the counter top after a shopping cart has been brought up to the counter to be unloaded. In this arrangement at least one of the four sides of the basket can be swung downwardly on the bottom of the basket and in which the bottom of the basket is removable from the interior of the basket to unload the goods from the basket onto the counter top so that the goods are placed on the counter top when the bottom is withdrawn. The unloaded shopping cart with the bottom reinstalled is parked at the unloading end of the counter top for the reloading of the goods meantime registered, and it can be secured there by a bar magnet against rolling away.
With this cashier system, work is to be made easier for the customer and for the cashier by the fact that all of the merchandise can be moved all at once out of the basket onto the counter, i.e., by a movement of the hand. This is possible, however, only if the basket contains no more merchandise than can fit on the bottom of the basket. If the goods are piled one on top of the other in the basket, there is the danger that, when the bottom is removed from the basket and the cart is pulled away, the goods will tumble over one another or fall from the counter top. Also, the replacement of the bottom into the basket is complicated and troublesome. Additionally the goods rung up must be picked up manually from the counter and placed in the basket at the end of the counter.
Holding the basket or shopping cart with a bar magnet has furthermore proven impractical. For these and other reasons, this check-out system has not been accepted in practice.
A conveyor-belt check-out counter for selfservice shops has been disclosed (DE-GM 76 11 940) in which a merchandise receiving container disposed in back of the payment station at the end of the lane. This container is in the form of a separate carriage, or else can be connected to the counter as a "merchandise cell" so as to be able to swing, turn, shift back and forth or hang. The merchandise container situated at the one side wall of the counter is made movable for the purpose of making this side wall of the counter easily accessible at any time, so that daily adjustment and maintenance work can be performed on the display unit which is integrated into the counter. The merchandise container, even in the form in which it is a movable carriage, is not designed and is not usable as a shopping cart. In its configuration as a merchandise cell, the merchandise container is so connected to the counter that it can only be shifted or rotated to free the one side of the counter. To accommodate the merchandise, however, it is always joined to the counter such that it cannot easily be moved away from this side wall, especially not in the loaded state.